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we do not know; but the invaders on was a short time ago only occupied by the 7th April resumed the offersive. thirty negroes of a West Indian regiment, The Fantees had in the meantime been without an officer. It is to be hoped that reinforced, and were encouraged by the the reinforcements which have been depresence of 120 of the Houssa police, spatched from Sierra Leone and Lagos under Lieutenant Hopkins, who had been will be employed to strengthen these tardily empowered to afford them sub-forts, for there seems to be no intention stantial aid. A battle which lasted six of carrying on any operations in the open hours took place, the Houssas fighting field. The force at the disposal of the gallantly and losing two men killed and Governor consists of three men-of-war fourteen wounded. The Ashantees, how-or gunboats, and 840 armed police, black ever, gained the day, and Lieutenant soldiers and volunteers. Had it been deHopkins fell back with his detachment to sired, ten times that number might have the coast. The Ashantees must have been raised from among the Fantees, bought their triumph dearly, for not till who, if well armed and led by Englishthe 14th did they again engage the beaten, men, would probably fight well. Fightbut still stubborn, Fantees. On this ing would however interfere with the occasion the fight lasted fourteen hours, moral force policy which seems to be in at the end of which time the Fantees favour. Besides, Lord Kimberley denies were completely routed. that we are under any obligation to proThe first battle was fought at a spot tect the protected tribes. It is not, he about seventeen miles from Cape Coast lately said, British, but only British-oCastle; the second action took place ap-tected, territory which has been violated, parently at the same place, but the scene and we have never pretended to defend it of the last engagement was no doubt against aggression in the same way as nearer to Cape Coast Castle. At all British territory. To unsophisticated events, it is said that the whole country minds it would seem that here is a disis now in the hands of the invaders, and tinction without a difference, and that the that we cannot be said to hold an acre of meaning of protection is to defend the ground save what is commanded by the protected against aggression. To calm fire from the forts on the coast. The any apprehension that might be felt, he fortifications of Cape Coast Castle con- asserted that the Ashantees, who numsist of an earthen work adjoining the bered only 4,000, were at the back of the road which leads to the town, a strong protected territory. Information obmasonry fort on the shore, and a martello tained from non-official sources gave the tower in which is kept the ammunition of number at 30,000 in one body, and, inthe garrison. Unfortunately this tower is deed it is now officially admitted that the isolated, and the fort itself is overlooked Colonial Office has been misinformed, at a distance of 300 or 400 yards by some and that the enemy numbers from 30,000 high hills. Cape Coast Castle is, how-to 40,000 men. Convinced at last that we ever, sufficiently strong both as regards fortifications and garrison to defy the dusky warrior, who is as unlikely to fulfil his oath as was his predecessor Quacoi Duah, who vowed in 1863 to cut off the Governor's head, and didn't. The outlying settlements are in a somewhat critical condition, their works being out of repair, ammunition being short, and the garrisons weak. Accra, for instance,

have to deal with no mere raid, but with a very substantial and formidable invasion, Lord Kimberley has sent out in hot haste a rocket battery and some marines. It is probable, however, that these reinforcements will arrive somewhat late, for by this time the rainy season has commenced and operations in the field must have perforce come to an end.

DILIGENT IN BUSINESS. A man indus- | God that gives him power to get wealth; if he trious in his calling, if without the fear of God, becomes a drudge to worldly ends; vexed when disappointed, overjoyed in success. Mingle but the fear of God with business, it will not abate a man's industry, but sweeten it; if he prosper, he is thankful to

miscarry, he is patient under the will and dispensation of the God he fears. It turns the very employment of his calling to a kind of religious duty and exercise of his religion, without damage or detriment to it.

Sir Matthew Hale.

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VI. THE BISHOP OF ARGYLL AND THE ISLES, Spectator,
VII. THE DUTCH COLONIAL SYSTEM,

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"But though they worshipped thee, my love, Thy maiden heart was free?". "Don't ask too much of me, my love; Don't ask too much of me."

"Yet now 'tis you and I, my love,

Love's wings no more will fly?”, "If Love could never die, my love, Our love should never die." "For shame! and is this so, my love, And Love and I must go?". "Indeed I do not know, my love;

My life, I do not know." "You will, you must be true, my love, Nor look and love anew!")

"I'll see what I can do, my love; I'll see what I can do."

Macmillan.

HYMN FOR A LITTLE CHILD.
GOD make my life a little light,

Within the world to glow;
A little flame that burneth bright,
Wherever I may go.

God make my life a little flower,
That giveth joy to all,
Content to bloom in native bower,
Although its place be small.

God make my life a little song,
That comforteth the sad;
That helpeth others to be strong,

And makes the singer glad.

God make my life a little staff

Whereon the weak may rest,
That so what health and strength I have
May serve my neighbours best.

God make my life a little hymn
Of tenderness and praise;
Of faith that never waxeth dim,
In all his wondrous ways.

Good Words.

M. BETHAM-EDWARDS.

From The Quarterly Review.
CENTRAL ASIA.*

771

Bokhara seems not to have been of THE first two works on our list were is- quest. Moslem writers, cited by Vámmuch antiquity at the Mahommedan consued before the late revival of excitement béry as asserting that the city's name about Central Asian questions. The pub- meant in the language of the idolaters lication must, in each case, have been in-"a place of study," indicate its true origin. spired by a happy prescience, or guided The site is said to have been a hollow by singular good fortune. covered with marshy jungle. Here, then, Of Professor Vámbéry's book, we can-amid the reeds and wild-fowl, some pious not speak at such length as it might just- Buddhist ascetics established their l'ily claim. It is the only history of Bo-hára, just as the early monks of our own khara in existence; the narrative is main- | lands sat down amidst the fens of Ely or tained with surprising spirit; and the Glastonbury. It is interesting thus to proportions assigned to each period are trace in the name of Holy Bokhara a adjusted with great judgment, and free flood-mark, in the extreme north-west, of from prolixity. The author uses a vari- that strange influence of Hindu religion ety of new Oriental sources, and intro- which has spread in an opposite quarter duces us to dynasties now named in an to far Japan and the Moluccas. European book for the first time. They, indeed, as might be expected, are not We had selected for extract passages the dynasties whose history affords treating of the accession of the Amír the most attractive episodes. The at- Maasum (1784), and his invasion of Merv, tention must flag over the barren wars because they touch characteristics of and bigotries of the later Uzbeg rule, till Central Asia; the pharisaic Islamism of that rule reaches a climax of degradation | Bokhara; the slaving raids, which are in Nasrullah Khan, best identified to the scourge of the whole Khorasan fronEnglish readers as the unpunished mur-tier; the processes by which tracts of derer of Conolly and Stoddart, father of the present Amír Mozaffar, on whose unhappy head, as Professor Vámbéry remarks, the ancient Hebrew proverb, that "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge,' has found a rare and rapid completeness of verification. In the base reign of Nasrullah a new and vast power rises luridly on the horizon of Bokhara.

1. History of Bokhara, from the Earliest Period

down to the Present. By Arminius Vámbéry. Lon

don, 1873.

2. A Journey to the Source of the River Oxus. By Captain John Wood, Indian Navy. New Edition, edited by his Son. With an Essay on the Geography of the Valley of the Oxus. By Colonel Henry Yule,

C.B. 1872.

3. Correspondence with Russia respecting Central Asia. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty. 1873. Nos. 1 and 2. (Quoted below as A and B.)

4. Die Russen in Centralasien. Von F. v. Hellwald.

Wien, 1869.

5. A General Report on the Yusufzais. By H. W. Bellew, Assistant Surgeon, Corps of Guides. Lahore, 1864.

6. Report on Peshawar District. By Major H. James, C.B. Lahore, 1871.

7. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. Vol. XXVIII.: Notes on Kafiristan; and Vol. XXXI.: Account of Suwat, &c. By Captain H. G. Raverty.

Asia, once fertile and populous, become
the irretrievable prey of barrenness. But
space affords but one extract, which we
take from a letter addressed to the Amír
by Aga Mahommed Shah in 1797, and
which contains a remarkable recognition of
the national unity of the Turkish races :-

wars between Iran and Turan? For such a
Dost thou perchance wish to renew the old
task thou art verily not sufficient.
To play
with the tail of the lion, to tickle the tiger in
the ear, is not the part of a prudent man. Yet
all men are descended from Adam and Eve,
and if thou art proud of thy relationship to
Turanian princes, know that my descent is
also from the same. . . .
We all of us owe
thanks to God, the Almighty, that he hath
given the dominion over Turan and Iran, over
Rúm, Rús, China, and India, to the exalted
family of Turk. Let each be content. . . . I
also will dwell in peace within the ancient
boundaries of Iran, and none of us will pass
over the Oxus.-P. 355.

It is indeed a notable fact that for more than eight centuries at least, unless the anarchy that followed the death of Nadir Shah show a kind of exception, no dynasty of other than Turanian blood has

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reigned in Iran; nor, during that time, has any dynasty of Iranian blood held high power anywhere in Asia.

66

disguises of the familiar Balkh and Ba-
dakhshán; whilst we hardly recognize the
Lion of the Panjáb under the form of
Rendjit, or Naoshera (more strictly Noh-
shaira), the scene of his triumph over the
Afghans, under that of Nutcherov.
The last chapter of the "History of
Bokhara" is headed "Emir Mozaffar-
eddin and the House of Romanoff." This
gives a spirited sketch of Russian prog-
ress in Turkestan. Vámbéry, it need not
be said, is no friend to Russian aggran-
dizement, but in this history he writes
impartially and does full justice to Rus-
sian valour and enterprise.

In General Duhamel's memorandum on

The English of Vámbéry's work is far above the ordinary run of anonymous translations. There are some odd mistakes in it, but they evidently spring from the translator's want of familiarity with Oriental subjects, and not from defective knowledge of either German or English. Dr. Vámbéry gives us incidentally many curious etymologies. We are glad to believe him when he tells us that Mankbarni, the cognomen of Jaláluddín, the gallant king of Chorasmia, meaning "the Sniveller," is an error for Mangbardi, "the Heaven-sent." Still the meanings a diversion against British India, rewhich he assigns to the names of the cently published by the "Allgemeine ZeiTartar tribes are trivial enough. He tung," on nothing is so much stress laid considers the name of the great tribe of as on the necessity of Afghan alliance. Kerait to have been a corruption of Kirit, And it was a just perception of this that Grey Dog." Manghit, the tribe to led to our fatal enterprise of 1838. The to the Russian which the reigning house of Bokhara be- importance attached longs, he interprets as "Sick Dog"! agency in that quarter was perfectly well Kungrat, the race from which the Khans founded, however disastrous the shape of Cathay used to select their hand- that our rulers gave to their consequent maidens, according to that strange sys- action. The third part of a century tem of competitive marks described by the measure of a generation - has passed Marco Polo, and still surviving as an since then, and great indeed has been the Uzbeg clan, is "Chestnut Horse;" and approximation of the two empires. The Oirat, another tribe of great fame in advance has not been all on the Russian the Mongol wars, is "Grey Horse." We side. In 1838 our frontier posts were on hesitate when our author asserts the sur- the left bank of the Sutlej, and of these name of Timour, Gurgán, as commonly Ferozpore alone was within 300 miles of written, to be properly Köreken, meaning "Handsome," and to be merely the name fo the particular family from which the conqueror was sprung. We have always understood the title Gurgán, to be a Mongol term, meaning "Son-in-law," which was applied formally to chiefs espoused to ladies of the Great Khan's family, and which was bestowed on Timour because one of his wives was a daughter of the last Mongol emperor at Cambaluc. Hence he is called by the Chinese Timour Fuma, a term having the same application.

the Indus. In 1873 the Indus and all its
Indian tributaries are within our frontier,
which practically extends to the foot of
the Bolan Pass leading to Southern
Afghanistan, as well as to the jaws of the
Russia was
Khyber leading to Kábul.
then at Orenburg; she is now at Samar-
kand; and her troops have been at Shahr
Sabz. Roundly speaking the direct in-
terval between Ferozpore and Orenburg
was more than 1800 miles, that between
Peshawar and Samarkand is less than
500.

The history of the Russian advance from the old frontier has been sketched in former numbers of this Review by the hand of a master.*

We bow to Professor Vámbéry's Ozbeg, without adopting a symbol that only puzzles an English reader; and we doubt not he has reasons for writing Belkh and Bedakhshan (though why in the name of consistency not Bedekhshan?), but in an English book we protest against these! October, 1868,

The last of these

*See "Quarterly Review" for October, 1865, and

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